“Andrei Platonovich Platonov is one of the largest Russian prose writers of the 20th century. Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

The childhood and adolescence of Andrei Platonovich Platonov coincided with the First World War, his youth with the revolution and the Civil War, and he perceived the revolution as the beginning of a new world era of the triumph of truth and righteousness. Platonov was interested in politics and Russian religious philosophy, issues modern science, classic and modern aesthetics,proletarian literature,inventionAndconcept of "productionism", “Philosophy of the Common Cause” by N. Fedorov and the works of Marxists, reading Dostoevsky’s novels and V. Rozanov’s prose.
In 1920, Platonov’s poems, articles, reviews, political editorials and stories were actively published. In the same year, he became a student at the Soviet Party School, constantly spoke in discussions of the Communist Union of Journalists, and was accepted as a candidate member of the RCP (b). Nikolai Zadonsky dedicated a number of memoirs to Platonov, his colleague and friend. He described the young writer of those years as follows: “Andrei Platonov in those years was a real newspaperman, he quickly responded to all topical, including international, political events, but he was distinguished from all of us by hisgyniness and depth of thinking and extraordinary style - any of his most ordinary articles or notes could be recognized by thesesigns, only Platonov could write like that. There were, of course, ambiguities in these articles, and manyinteresting and even confusing, but everything that Andrei took on was distinguished by its originality... Andrei Platonov was very keen on hydrofication in those years, often spoke in print on this topic, later wrote a magnificent story “Epifansky Locks”, and I remember his wonderful report, deep and substantiated, made for journalists and press workers in the Iron Pen club. Platonov’s knowledge in the field of hydrofication was enormous, and, inin the end, he was invited to work for the land authorities. He became the chairman of the commission for hydrofication of the region...

Andrey was on Wednesdaytall and strongly built, with a wide Russian face and inquisitive eyes, in which some kind of deep sadness seemed to be hidden. He wore untucked gray broadcloth trousers and the same shirt with a belt, and on hot days he worea canvas or cotton shirt.”

On the evening river, dying
The still water became warmer.
At this hour the last, dying
We will never die.
We hear your call, we hear your voice everywhere,
Silence and sleep is your soul.

We can’t breathe in our mother’s arms,
There was no return at night.
The light will shine, unknown and secret,
Above the forests, waiting and dumb,
A spring flows, living and beginningless.
The wanderer walked and looked for the way home...

In 1923, Valery Bryusov noted the originality of Blue Depth. He wrote: “He has a rich imagination I, bold language and my own approach to topics". Despite being busy with production work, Platonov wrote a lot and participated in collective publications of Voronezh poets.

Early 1928Platonovfinished work on the novel"Chevengur". The city of Chevengur appeared on the map of world culture of the 20th century, capturing both the routes of life traveled and the thoughts of its creator. "Chevengur" - monumental monument native land, in which the main geographical names belonged to the writer's native Voronezh region, and at the same time Platonov depicted in his work the world utopian city of communism, the creation of which resulted not only in the destruction of his “old” life, but also in the death of the ideologists and builders of the New City. The word "Chevengur" in the novel was approx.armed with whole rows of “attractive melodious names”, it showed the eternal human history craving for the unknown, unexpressed and ideal word-symbol. Platonov walked with his heroes this path to the country of the communist dream-utopia to the end. As an artist, he was able to show the depths of the revolutionary element, the boiling human magma, from which something new was being boiled, and as a thinker, he was able to give it a philosophical parableevest. At the same time, he was a European educated person.

Yuri Nagibin,with stepfatherwhom Platonov communicated closely with - the writer Rykachev, testified: “It was always hypnotically interesting with him. He knew perfectly well everything that was happening in the world of literature, in the world of art, in the world exact sciences. It is not surprising that he knew everything about steam locomotives, and about technology in general, but he was “at home” when it came to Freudianism, various cosmogonic theories or the sensational her book by Spengler “The Decline of Europe”. I remember his argument with my stepfather about the famous and unfortunate Weininger, who came to suicide through theoretical meansm. I listened to him with my mouth open... In the field of literature,there were no white spots on him either. He felt equally at ease in the world of Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Fyodor Dostoevsky, in the world of Voltaire and Pushkin, in the world of La Rochefoucauld and Stendhal, Virgil and Laurence Stern, Greene and Hemingway. He could not be discouraged by any name or theory, new teaching or fashionable trend in painting. He knew everything in the world! And all this, like most real people, were the golden fruits of self-education.”

In the novel “Chevengur,” Platonov showed a world that had been shaken and turned upside down after 1917, where everything had gone out of whack, and where everyone wanted to take someone else’s, more significant role, according to the principle: “Whoever was nothing will become everything!” The village cook called herself “the head of communal catering,” the groom called herself “the head of the livingtraction." There was also a “supervisor of dead inventory” in the novel, and Ivan Moshonkov,renamedwho resembled Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Stepan Kopenkin, who instead of an icon Mother of God sewed a portrait of Rosa Luxemburg into a hat. All heroes were bossesAnd, everyone was in office, gave up their usual activitieschanged gods. The bourgeoisie were shot bad people there were no more, the good ones remained - and they were all waiting for the immediate onsetcommunism... “What kind of nit are you,” Kopenkin was indignant, “the provincial executive committee told you to finish socialism by the summer!”

From the firstdays of the Great Patriotic War Platonov sought to be sent to the front. At the beginning of 1942, during evacuation in Ufa, where heAfter working for several weeks, Platonov was appointed war correspondent for Red Star and soon went to the front. “I write about them with all the energy of the spirit that I have in me. I end up with something like a requiem in prose. And this work, if I succeed, Maria, will bring me even remotely closer to souls fallen heroes... It seems to me that I succeed in something, becauseI am guided by the inspiration of their feat,” Platonov wrote to his wife in one of first letters from the front. Platonov's storiesthese years became, indeed, a “requiem in prose”; this was the spiritual prose of great Russian literature in its origins, which stood the test of both war and time. Platonov’s essays and stories with the invariable signature “Active Army” were constantly published on the pages of “Red Star” and “Red Army Man”. During the war, four of his books came out of print. military prose- “Spiritualized People” in 1942, “Storys about the Motherland" and "Armor" in 1943, "Towards the Sunset" in 1945.

The fate of stories from the war years was also dramatic - the stories were rejected, mercilessly corrected, the publication of all books was accompanied by devastating in-house reviews. “Unacceptable” in prosePlatonov's war years turned out to be almost everything for his contemporaries: a luminous style and appeal to the language of hagiography and apocrypha, the author's idea that the Russian soldier defeated the enemy solely by the power of his patience and suffering, the soldiers' thoughts that a military feat only brought closer the accomplishment of another great feat - feat of love and peaceful life. On the first page of the book “Spiritualized People” Platonov left the following laconic description of the results of such an attitude: “A shortened edition, heavily revised by the editors - to the point of distortion.” In 1943, Platonov’s book “On the Living and the Dead” did not pass censorship; in 1946, the book “All Life” did not pass censorship.

Andrey Platonov with his wife and son

In the first post-war months, Platonov returned to the image of Petrushka in the story “Ivanov’s Family.” By the end of the summer of 1945, the story was written and published in Novy Mir, where Platonov was actively supported by K. Fedin. One of the masterpieces of short Russian prose about the war and the return of a soldier from the front, the story “Ivanov’s Family” (another name is “The Return”), was called in 1947 “a slanderous story by A. Platonov” by V. Ermilov and “a lying, dirty storyteller” Alexander Fadeev.

Return, 1946

Brief summary of the story.

Having served throughout the war, Guard Captain Alexey Alekseevich Ivanov left the army for demobilization. At the station, while waiting for a long time for the train, he meets a girl named Masha, the daughter of a space operator, who served in the canteen of their unit. They travel together for two days, and Ivanov stays for another two days in the city where Masha was born twenty years ago. Ivanov kisses Masha goodbye, remembering forever that her hair smells “like autumn fallen leaves in the forest.”

A day later at the station hometown Ivanov is greeted by his son Petrushka. He is already twelfth year old, and the father does not immediately recognize his child in a serious teenager. His wife Lyubov Vasilievna is waiting for them on the porch of the house. Ivanov hugs his wife, feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of a loved one. The daughter, little Nastya, does not remember her father and is crying. Parsley pulls her back: “This is our father, he is our relatives!” The family begins to prepare a holiday meal. Petrushka commands everyone - Ivanov is surprised at how mature and old-man-wise his son is. But he likes little meek Nastya better. Ivanov asks his wife how they lived here without him. Lyubov Vasilievna is ashamed of her husband, like a bride: she has lost the habit of him. Ivanov feels with shame that something is preventing him from wholeheartedly rejoicing in his return - after for long years he cannot immediately understand even the closest people of separation.

The family is sitting at the table. The father sees that the children eat little. When the son indifferently explains: “And I want you to get more,” the parents, shuddering, look at each other. Nastya hides a piece of pie - “for Uncle Semyon.” Ivanov asks his wife who this Uncle Semyon is. Lyubov Vasilievna explains that the Germans killed Semyon Evseevich’s wife and children, and he asked them to go play with the children, and they saw nothing bad from him, but only good... Listening to her, Ivanov smiles unkindly and lights a cigarette. Petrushka manages the household chores, instructs his father to get his allowance tomorrow, and Ivanov feels his shyness in front of his son.

In the evening after dinner, when the children go to bed, Ivanov asks his wife for details of the life she spent without him. Petrushka overhears, he feels sorry for his mother. This conversation is painful for both - Ivanov is afraid of confirmation of his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity, but she openly admits that she had nothing with Semyon Evseevich. She was waiting for her husband and loved only him. Only once, “when her soul was completely dying,” did one person become close to her, an instructor at the district committee, but she regretted that she had allowed him to be close. She realized that only with her husband could she be calm and happy. “Without you, I have nowhere to go, I can’t save myself for the children... Live with us, Alyosha, it will be good for us!” - says Lyubov Vasilievna. Parsley hears her father groaning and crushing the glass of the lamp with a crunch. “You wounded me in my heart, and I am also a person, not a toy...” In the morning, Ivanov gets ready. Parsley tells him everything about them hard life without him, how his mother was waiting for him, and he arrived, and his mother was crying. His father gets angry with him: “You still don’t understand anything!” - “You yourself don’t understand. We have a job to do, we have to live, and you are swearing like stupid people...” And Petrushka tells the story about Uncle Khariton, whose wife cheated on him, and they also quarreled, and then Khariton said that he also had a lot of things at the front , and he and his wife laughed and made peace, although Khariton made up everything about his infidelities... Ivanov listens to this story with surprise.

He goes to the station in the morning, drinks vodka and takes the train to go to Masha, whose hair smells like nature. At home, Petrushka wakes up and sees only Nastya - her mother has left for work. After asking Nastya how her father left, he thinks for a minute, dresses his sister and leads her along.

Ivanov is standing in the vestibule of a train that passes near his house. At the crossing he sees figures of children - the bigger one quickly drags behind him the smaller one, who does not have time to move his legs. Ivanov already knows that these are his children. They are far behind, and Petrushka is still dragging behind her the slow-moving Nastya. Ivanov throws his duffel bag on the ground, goes down to the bottom step of the car and gets off the train “on that sandy path along which his children ran after him.”

Platonov’s works, distributed in “samizdat” at a time when their publication was out of the question, became very popular in the 1960s. Official recognition of Platonov awaited in the late 1980s. The writer who appeared as if from oblivion immediately became a classic. Most of it significant novels and the stories - "Chevengur", "Juvenile Sea" and "Pit" - were published in 1987 and 1988.
In Voronezh, a street, a gymnasium, a library, literary prize, a music and theater festival and even an electric train. In the city center on Revolution Avenue there is a monument to the writer. Platonov's plays began to be staged on stage in the late 1980s different theaters. A number of films have been made based on Platonov’s works.

" The last memory of Andrei Platonovich is him on a bench, in a hospital gown and slippers, sad, but very calm, although he knew everything, understood everything.
As a keepsake from him, I have a small, gray, very shabby book (“Alas, there is no other now...”) with a silver inscription “Potudan River”, edition of “Soviet Writer”, year of publication... 1987.
Let’s hope,” Andrei Platonovich smiled, handing me the book, that this typo is in some way prophetic. Perhaps in 1987 they will still remember me.
It was said with a smile, but also with bitterness. It is bitter for a writer when he is not published, and therefore not read, even if he is healthy. . ..

... Now Andrei Platonovich is published, read, and even films based on his stories are made. He's famous again. The people's path to him has not become overgrown... I say with pride: “And I knew him. I knew it personally. I even have a book with the inscription...” The book is a rarity, of course, but still I had to come to him at least once alone, without companions, then, perhaps, I would have been able to tell me more about the man who “in life “I was not a writer, but in my writing I always remained a man.”

Victor Nekrasov. "Platonov"

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Andrey Platonov (real name Andrey Platonovich Klimentov) (1899-1951) - Russian Soviet writer, prose writer, one of the most original Russian writers in style of the first half of the 20th century.

Andrey was born on August 28 (16), 1899 in Voronezh, in the family of a railway mechanic Platon Firsovich Klimentov. However, traditionally his birthday is celebrated on September 1st.

Andrei Klimentov studied at a parish school, then at a city school. At the age of 15 (according to some sources, already at 13) he began working to support his family. According to Platonov: “We had a family... 10 people, and I am the eldest son - one worker, except for my father. My father... could not feed such a horde.” “Life immediately turned me from a child into an adult, depriving me of my youth.”

Until 1917, he changed several professions: he was an auxiliary worker, a foundry worker, a mechanic, etc., which he wrote about in early stories“The Next One” (1918) and “Seryoga and Me” (1921).

Participated in the civil war as a front-line correspondent. Since 1918, he published his works, collaborating with several newspapers as a poet, publicist and critic. In 1920, he changed his last name from Klimentov to Platonov (the pseudonym was formed on behalf of the writer’s father), and also joined the RCP (b), but a year later at will left the party.

In 1921, his first journalistic book, Electrification, was published, and in 1922, a book of poems, Blue Depth. In 1924, he graduated from the polytechnic and began working as a land reclamation worker and electrical engineer.

In 1926, Platonov was recalled to work in Moscow at the People's Commissariat for Agriculture. He was sent to engineering and administrative work in Tambov. In the same year they wrote “Epiphanian Gateways”, “Ethereal Route”, “City of Gradov”, which brought him fame. Platonov moved to Moscow, becoming a professional writer.

Gradually, Platonov’s attitude towards revolutionary changes changes until they are rejected. His prose ( "City of Gradov", "Doubting Makar" etc.) often caused rejection of criticism. In 1929, A.M. received a sharply negative assessment. Gorky and Platonov’s novel “Chevengur” was banned from publication. In 1931, the published work “For Future Use” caused sharp condemnation by A. A. Fadeev and I. V. Stalin. After this, Platonov practically stopped being published. Stories "Pit", "Juvenile Sea", the novel "Chevengur" was released only in the late 1980s and received worldwide recognition.

In 1931-1935, Andrei Platonov worked as an engineer in the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, but continued to write (the play "High voltage" , story "Juvenile Sea"). In 1934, the writer and a group of colleagues traveled to Turkmenistan. After this trip, the story “Jan”, the story “Takyr”, the article "On the first socialist tragedy" and etc.

In 1936-1941, Platonov appeared in print mainly as a literary critic. He publishes in magazines under various pseudonyms." Literary critic", "Literary Review" and others. Working on a novel "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg"(his manuscript was lost at the beginning of the war), writes children's plays "Granny's Hut", "Good Titus", "Step Daughter".

In 1937, his story “The Potudan River” was published. In May of the same year, his 15-year-old son Platon was arrested, having returned from imprisonment in the fall of 1940, terminally ill with tuberculosis, after the troubles of Platonov’s friends. In January 1943 he died.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the writer and his family were evacuated to Ufa, where a collection of his war stories was published "Under the skies of the Motherland". In 1942, he volunteered to go to the front as a private, but soon became a military journalist, front-line correspondent for Red Star. Despite suffering from tuberculosis, Platonov did not leave the service until 1946. At this time, his war stories appeared in print: "Armor", "Spiritualized People"(1942), "No Death!" (1943), "Aphrodite" (1944), "Towards the Sunset"(1945), etc.

For Platonov’s story “Return”, published at the end of 1946 ( original title"The Ivanov Family"), writer in next year was subjected to new attacks by critics and was accused of slandering the Soviet system. After this, the opportunity to publish his works was closed for Platonov.

At the end of the 1940s, deprived of the opportunity to earn a living by writing, Platonov was engaged in literary processing of Russian and Bashkir fairy tales, which are published in children's magazines.

Platonov died on January 5, 1951 in Moscow from tuberculosis, which he contracted while caring for his son.

His book was published in 1954 "Magic ring and other tales". With Khrushchev's "thaw", his other books began to be published (the main works became known only in the 1980s). However, all of Platonov’s publications in Soviet period accompanied by significant censorship restrictions.

Some works of Andrei Platonov were discovered only in the 1990s (for example, the novel written in the 30s "Happy Moscow").

PLATONOV, SERGEY FEDOROVICH(1860–1933), Russian historian. Born on June 16 (28), 1860 in Chernigov, in the family of a printing office employee. Parents, native Muscovites by origin, moved to St. Petersburg, where his father took the position of manager of the printing house of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After graduating from a private gymnasium, Platonov entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University in the spring of 1878. He studied with professors I.I. Serznevsky, O.F. Miller, V.G. Vasilyevsky, A.D. Gradovsky, V.I. Sergeevich. Especially big influence he was influenced by K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, whom he called his teacher. At the university, Platonov joined a circle consisting of students of history and philology V.G. Druzhinin, M.A. Dyakonov, A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky, E.F. Shmurlo and others.

On the recommendation of Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Platonov was left at the university for “preparation for a professorship.” Devoted about 8 years to preparing a master’s (candidate’s) dissertation on the topic Old Russian legends and stories about the Time of Troubles of the 17th century as historical source (1888). The dissertation was published in the same year as a monograph and awarded the Uvarov Prize of the Academy of Sciences.

Platonov took the position of private assistant professor, and in the fall of 1890 - professor of the department of Russian history at St. Petersburg University. Throughout his subsequent life, until the mid-1920s, the scientist taught at the university: he taught a general course in Russian history, courses on individual eras and issues, taught seminars. Many came from his seminaries famous representatives St. Petersburg school of historians (P.G. Vasenko, P.G. Lyubomirov, N.P. Pavlov-Silvansky, A.E. Presnyakov, B.A. Romanov, etc.).

In 1899 Platonov defended his doctoral dissertation Essays on the history of the Time of Troubles in the Moscow State of the 16th–17th centuries.(Study experience social order and class relations in Time of Troubles ), published in the same year as a separate book. Written based on large number sources, excellent literary language, this work is the pinnacle scientific creativity scientist. Using theory S.M. Solovyova about the struggle of clan and state relations in the history of Russia, the author tried to put into this theory “specific content and show with facts how the old order died in the Time of Troubles and in what forms a new order arose, under the conditions of which modern state». Main meaning"political misfortunes and social strife" of the early 17th century. the author saw in the change of the ruling class - the old nobility to the nobility. Among the prerequisites and driving force The development of the Troubles was called the formation of serfdom, the strengthening of feudal oppression and the social struggle of “the poor and disadvantaged against the rich and noble.” Oprichnina Ivan the Terrible was defined not as “the whim of a timid tyrant,” but as a well-thought-out system of actions to defeat the “appanage aristocracy.”

Platonov’s other works are a series of articles about figures of the Time of Troubles (Patriarch Hermogenes, False Dmitry I, etc.), about the first Romanovs, the Zemsky Sobor of 1648–1649, the personality and deeds of Peter I.

However, it was not his scientific monographs and articles that brought Platonov wide fame, but his reference book students Lectures on Russian history(first edition 1899) and Russian history textbook for high school (in 2 parts, 1909–1910). Distinguished by their harmonious and accessible presentation of vast factual material, textbooks were extremely popular in pre-revolutionary higher schools and gymnasiums.

For several years Platonov taught history to children Alexandra III Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. However, he did not enjoy the special favor of their brother, Nicholas II. After 1917, a note about professors of Russian history was discovered in the tsar’s papers. It contained the following lines: “Professor Platonov, who has enormous erudition, is also quite decent; but he is dry and, undoubtedly, has very little sympathy for the cult of Russian heroes; Of course, studying his works cannot evoke either a feeling of love for the fatherland or national pride.”

TO October revolution Platonov had a negative attitude. He believed that it was not prepared “from any point of view”; the program of the Soviet government was “artificial and utopian.” Invited by D.B. Ryazanov to cooperate in the rescue of historical and cultural monuments, Platonov worked in the interdepartmental commission for the protection and arrangement of archives of abolished institutions, then as deputy chairman of the Main Directorate of Archival Affairs, head of the Petrograd branch of the Main Archives. After his removal from archival work initiated by M.N. Pokrovsky, Platonov worked at the Academy of Sciences - director of the Pushkin House (1925–1929) and the Library of the Academy of Sciences (1925–1928).

Popular science essays by Platonov were published - Boris Godunov. Images of the past(1921), Ivan groznyj(1530–1584 ) (1923), books Moscow and the West in the 16th–17th centuries(1925) and Peter the Great. Personality and activity(1926), articles on the ancient colonization of the Russian North, etc. In his work, Platonov continued to be guided by the same principles as before. “My worldview,” he wrote in 1930, “which developed towards the end of the 19th century, was based on Christian morality, positivist philosophy and scientific evolutionary theory... In essence, I remain the same at the present moment. Atheism is as alien to me as church dogma.”

The so-called “Academy of Sciences case” played a tragic role in the scientist’s fate. On October 12, 1929, the OGPU department for Leningrad and the region received intelligence information about the storage of important political archives in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, allegedly unknown to the Soviet authorities. A check of this information was organized through a commission for cleaning the apparatus of the Academy of Sciences. On October 19, the chairman of the commission, Yu.P. Figatner, discovered in the Library original copies of manifestos about the abdication of Nicholas II and his brother Mikhail, documents of the Central Committee of the Cadets and Socialist Revolutionaries, and some other materials. I.V. Stalin was immediately notified of this. The blame for the “concealment” of documents (their presence was reported to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee back in 1926) was placed on Platonov. On November 5, 1929, the Politburo decided to remove the scientist from all posts he held.

However, the matter did not stop there. On the night of January 12-13, 1930, Platonov and his daughter Maria were arrested. Soon many of his friends and professional comrades ended up in prison. All of them were representatives of the old professoriate and did not adhere to the official Marxist ideology. Among them are N.P. Likhachev, M.K. Lyubavsky, E.V.Tarle, S.V.Bakhrushin, P.G.Vasenko, Yu.V.Gautier, V.G.Druzhinin, D.N.Egorov, V.I.Picheta, B.A.Romanov, A.I.Yakovlev, total 115 people. They were charged with participating in the counter-revolutionary monarchist organization “National Union of Struggle for the Revival free Russia" According to the OGPU, the goal of the organization was to overthrow Soviet power and establish a constitutional monarchy headed by Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich (a former student of Platonov); the role of prime minister of the future government was assigned to Platonov himself.

On August 8, 1931, 15 “main criminals,” among whom Platonov, were sentenced to 5 years of exile. The place of exile for the scientist and his two daughters was Samara.

Years of life: from 08/28/1899 to 01/05/1951

Andrei Platnov is a Russian writer and playwright, one of the most original Russian writers in style and language of the first half of the 20th century.

Andrei Platonovich Klimentov was born on August 28 (16), 1899 (his birthday is officially celebrated on September 1) in a large family of a mechanic at railway workshops in the settlement of Yamskaya on the outskirts of the city of Voronezh. He took the surname Platonov for himself already in the 20s, forming it on behalf of his father, Platon Firsovich Klimentov. Andrey was the eldest of eleven children. He studied first at a parochial school, and then at a city school. He started working at the age of 14. “We had a family... of 10 people, and I am the eldest son - the only worker, except for my father. My father... could not feed such a horde,” he later wrote in his memoirs. The young man worked as a delivery boy, a foundry worker at a pipe factory, an electrical engineer, and an assistant driver. The motif of the locomotive will run through all of his work.

After the revolution, in 1918, Andrei went back to school. Enters the Voronezh Railway Polytechnic School in the electrical engineering department. Inspired by new socialist ideas and trends, participated in discussions of the Communist Union of Journalists, published articles, stories, poems in Voronezh newspapers and magazines (“Voronezh Commune”, “Red Village”, “Iron Path”, etc.). But the Civil War confused all plans and in 1919 he went to the front as an ordinary rifleman in a railway detachment, and also as a “journalist for the Soviet press and writer.”

After graduation Civil War Andrei Platonov enters the Polytechnic Institute. His first book. In 1920, the First All-Russian Congress of Proletarian Writers took place in Moscow, where Platonov represented the Voronezh Writers' Organization. A survey was conducted at the congress. Platonov’s answers give an idea of ​​him as honest (not inventing a “revolutionary past” for himself, like others) and quite confident in his abilities young writer: “Did you participate in revolutionary movement, where and when?" - "No"; “Were you subjected to repression before the October Revolution?..” - “No”; “What obstacles have hindered or are hindering your literary development? - “Low education, lack of free time”; “Which writers influenced you greatest influence? - “None”; "What literary trends do you sympathize or belong?” - “No, I have my own.” At the same time, Andrei Platonov was even a candidate member of the RCP (b) for a short time, but for criticizing “official revolutionaries” in the feuilleton “The Human Soul is an Indecent Animal” in 1921, he was expelled as “a shaky and unstable element.” In the same year, his first book (brochure) was published - a collection of essays "Electrification", which asserted the idea that "electrification is the same revolution in technology, with the same meaning as October 1917." The following year, in Krasnodar, a collection of poems “Blue Depth” was published, a collection composed of his youthful pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary poems. After the first published books literary work for a while Platonov takes second place and he gives himself completely practical work by specialty. Proletarian writer, in his opinion, he was obliged to have a profession, and to create “in his free weekend hours.” In 1921–1922, he was the chairman of the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Drought in the Voronezh Province, and from 1923 to 1926, he worked in the Voronezh Provincial Land Administration as a provincial land reclamation specialist and head of electrification work. Agriculture. At that time, he was seriously passionate about the task of transforming the entire agricultural system, and these were not some violent or demonstrative labor feats, but the consistent materialization of the views of Platonov himself, which he outlined back in the “Russian Kolymaga”: “The fight against hunger, the fight for The life of the revolution comes down to fighting drought. There is a way to defeat it. And this is the only means: hydrofication, that is, the construction of artificial irrigation systems for fields with cultivated plants. The revolution turns into a fight against nature.” Platonov of these years is a maximalist dreamer, a fighter against

elemental forces in nature and life, calling for the speedy transformation of Russia “into the country of thought and metal.” Later, as a technically educated and gifted person (having dozens of patents for his inventions), he will see the environmental danger of such a strategy. Despite his constant employment, in rare free moments Platonov continues to study literature. He publishes journalistic articles, stories and poems in Voronezh newspapers and magazines and even in the Moscow magazine “Kuznitsa”. Writes stories on topics village life(“In the Starry Desert”, 1921, “Chuldik and Epishka”, 1920), as well as science fiction stories and novellas (“Descendants of the Sun”, 1922, “Markun”, 1922, “Moon Bomb”, 1926), in which belief technical progress connects with the utopian idealism of the artisan-inventor.

In 1926, Andrei Platonov was elected to the Central Committee of the Union of Agriculture and Forestry at the All-Russian Congress of Land Reclamation Workers and moved with his family to Moscow. By that time he was married to Masha Kashintseva. He met her in 1920 at the Voronezh branch of literary writers, where she served. “Eternal Mary”, she became the writer’s muse, the “Epiphanian Locks” and many poems that Platonov composed throughout his life are dedicated to her.

Work in the Central Committee of the Union of Agriculture did not go well. “Part of this is to blame for the passion for thinking and writing,” Platonov admitted in a letter. For about three months he worked in Tambov as head of the land reclamation department. During this time, a series of stories were written in Russian historical topics, fantastic story“The Ethereal Tract” (1927), the story “Epifansky Locks” (about Peter’s transformations in Russia) and the first edition of “The City of Gradov” (a satirical interpretation of the new state philosophy).

Since 1927, Platonov and his family finally settled in Moscow: the writer in him defeated the engineer. The next two years, perhaps, can be called the most prosperous in his life as a writer, which was greatly facilitated by Grigory Zakharovich Litvin-Molotov. A member of the Voronezh provincial committee and the editorial board of the Voronezh Izvestia (he attracted the young Platonov to work in local newspapers), Litvin-Molotov then headed the Burevestnik publishing house in Krasnodar (where Plato’s collection of poems was published), and from the mid-1920s he became the chief editor of the publishing house

“Young Guard” in Moscow (where the first two collections of Platonov’s stories and stories were published). At this time, Andrei Platonov creates new edition“Cities of Gradov”, cycle of stories: “ Hidden Man"(an attempt to understand

Civil War and new social relations through the eyes of the “natural fool” Foma Pukhov), “Yamskaya Sloboda”, “Builders of the Country” (from which the novel “Chevengur” will grow). Collaborates in the magazines “Krasnaya Nov”, “ New world", "October", "Young Guard", publishes collections: "Epiphanian Locks" (1927), "Meadow Masters" (1928), "The Origin of the Master" (1929). Also Moscow literary life inspired Platonov’s satirical pen to create several parodies: “Factory of Literature” (written for the magazine “October”, but published there only in 1991),

“Moscow Society of Literature Consumers. MOPL", "Antisexus" (dialogue with LEF, Mayakovsky, Shklovsky, etc.).

At that time, everything in the writer’s life was going well: he was noticed by critics, and Maxim Gorky approved of him. Moreover, it was Platonov the satirist who liked Gorky: “In your psyche,” as I perceive it, “there is an affinity with Gogol. Therefore, try yourself at comedy, not drama. Leave drama for personal pleasure.” But Platonov did not listen to the recommendations, writing only a few satirical works. A critical turning point came in the writer’s fate in 1929, when RAPP critics destroyed his stories “Che-Che-O”, “ State resident", "Doubting Makar". “The Doubting Makar” was also read by Stalin himself (who, unlike subsequent leaders, read everything even more or less noticeable) - he did not approve of the ideological ambiguity and anarchic nature of the story. Publishers

immediately, for ideological reasons, they begin to reject all of his works. The set of the novel “Chevengur”, which had already been completed to layout, was scattered (the novel will be released after death of the writer, in 1972 in Paris).

However, a wave of criticism and even the threat of reprisals did not force Andrei Platonov to put down his pen. He also did not become a dissident, as supporters of perestroika tried to make him out to be after his death. In a letter to Maxim Gorky in those difficult times, he writes: “I am writing this letter to you not to complain - I have nothing to complain about... I want to tell you that I am not a class enemy, and no matter how much I have suffered as a result of my mistakes, I cannot become a class enemy and it is impossible to bring me to this state, because the working class is my homeland, and my future is connected with the proletariat... to be rejected by my class and to be internally still with it is much more painful, than to recognize oneself as an alien... and step aside.”

And it was during this period that Platonov’s new poetics crystallized, the revolutionary aspiration for the future and the declarative and illustrative presentation of the utopian idea was replaced by searches deep meanings life - “the substance of existence”. The author’s unique style is emerging based on poetic techniques and the word-formation mechanism of language, which reveals the hidden, primary meaning of a word. Platonov’s expressive tongue-tiedness (for which he is so valued by some, but cannot be accepted by other readers) has no precedents in Russian literature, partly relying on the traditions of symbolism, as well as processing the experience of the avant-garde and the newspaper vocabulary of his time.

In the fall of 1929, Andrei Platonov, on instructions from the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, travels a lot to state farms and collective farms in Central Russia. Thanks to materials from these trips, he begins to work on the story “The Pit,” which will become one of his main masterpieces, but will never be published during the author’s lifetime (first published in the USSR in 1987)).

In the mid-1930s, Platonov was a writer who wrote mainly on the table. The situation is aggravated by everyday troubles: the family wanders for a long time in temporary apartments, until in 1931 they settle in a wing of a mansion on Tverskoy Boulevard(now the Herzen Literary Institute). But no matter what, the abundance of ideas overwhelms the writer. At this time, he wrote the novel “Happy Moscow”, the play “The Voice of the Father”, the folk tragedy “14 Red Huts” (about the famine in the Russian province during the time of “dekulakization”), articles on literature (about Pushkin, Akhmatova, Hemingway, Chapek , Greene, Paustovsky). Business trips from the People's Commissariat of Agriculture to collective and state farms in the Volga region and the North Caucasus provided the writer with material for the story “The Juvenile Sea” (1932).

After “Chevengur” and “The Pit,” the writer gradually begins to move away from large-scale social canvases into the world of ordinary universal human motifs - emotional experiences And love dramas. But at the same time, the psychological modeling of the characters is enhanced; the ironic attitude towards love gives way to the depth of psychological reading. The collection of lyrical stories “The Potudan River” was the first to be published after a long period of oblivion. The book was published in 1937, but immediately after its release it was subjected to derogatory criticism. Paradoxically, it was at this time that the first and only monographic study of his work was written during the writer’s lifetime. It was a large accusatory article by A. Gurvich “Andrei Platonov” in the magazine “Krasnaya Nov” (1937, No. 10). Tracing creative evolution writer, Gurvich determined that the basis artistic system Platonov is “religious soul order”. Essentially true, but against the backdrop of the “godless five-year plan” this was actually a political denunciation.

The situation is aggravated by another event - in 1938, Platonov’s fifteen-year-old son Tosha (Platon) was arrested and convicted under Article 58/10 (for anti-Soviet agitation) on a fabricated case. He was released only in the fall of 1940 thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Sholokhov (at that time a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR), who was friends with the Platonovs.

However, the joy was short-lived - the son returned terminally ill with tuberculosis and died in January 1943. Andrei Platonov, in his vain attempts to get rid of his son, became infected with tuberculosis.

In 1936-1941, Platonov appeared in print mainly as a literary critic. Under various pseudonyms, he publishes in the magazines "Literary Critic", "Literary Review", etc. He works on the novel "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg" (his manuscript was lost at the beginning of the war), writes children's plays "Granny's Hut", "Kind Titus", "Step Daughter".

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the writer and his family were evacuated to Ufa, where a collection of his war stories “Under the Skies of the Motherland” was published. In 1942, he volunteered to go to the front as a private, but soon became a front-line correspondent for Red Star. During the war, four more books by Platonov were published: “Spiritualized People” (1942), “Stories about the Motherland”, “Armor” (both 1943), “Towards the Sunset” (1945). At the end of 1946, one of the best stories Platonov - “Return”, in which the author, using the example of “Ivanov’s family” (this is the original title), reflects on the fact that war cripples people not only physically, but also morally. Critics immediately branded the story as slander against the “hero soldier” and, in fact, thereby putting an end to the writer’s lifetime publications.

IN last years life, a seriously ill writer is forced to earn his living by transcribing Russian and Bashkir folk tales. He is working on a satirical play on the theme of American reality (with allusions to the USSR), Noah's Ark, but never has time to finish it. How could he be supported by the writers Sholokhov and Fadeev (the latter, who once “on duty” criticized “Doubting Makar”). With the help of Sholokhov, it was possible to publish books of fairy tales “Finist - Clear Falcon", "Bashkir folk tales"(both 1947), "The Magic Ring" (1949). At that time Platonov lived in an outbuilding Literary Institute named after A. M. Gorky. One of the writers, seeing him sweeping the yard under his windows, started a legend that he had to work as a janitor.

Tuberculosis, which he contracted from his son, makes itself felt more and more often, and on January 5, 1951, Andrei Platonov passed away. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery next to his son.

One of the most significant writers of the 20th century passed away unrecognized. He never saw his main works - the novel “Chevengur”, the stories “The Pit”, “The Juvenile Sea”, “Dzhan” - published. Only in the Khrushchev sixties did the first Plato books timidly begin to appear. His main works were published only in the late 80s, and the master’s bright originality aroused a wave of interest in him around the world. Ernest Hemingway in his Nobel speech named Platonov among his teachers., plays “High Voltage” and “14 Red Huts”
1933 - 1936 - (the novel is not finished)
1934 - stories and “Jan”, story “Takyr”
1936 - stories “The Third Son” and “Immortality”, novel “The Macedonian Officer” (unfinished)
1937 - stories “The Potudan River (story)”, “In the beautiful and furious world", "Fro", novel "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg" (manuscript lost)
1938 - story “The July Thunderstorm”
1939 - story “The Motherland of Electricity”
1942 - “Under the skies of the motherland” (collection of stories), published in Ufa
1942 - “Spiritualized People” (collection of stories)
1943 - “Stories about the Motherland” (collection of stories)
1943 - “Armor” (collection of stories)
1945 - collection of stories “Towards the Sunset”, story “Nikita”
1946 - story “Ivanov’s Family” (“Return”)
1947 - books “Finist - Clear Falcon”, “Bashkir Folk Tales”
1948 - play “Lyceum Student”
1950 - (collection of Russian folk tales)
1951 - (unfinished mystery play)

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

Fro (1964),
film by Rezo Esadze based on the story of the same name.
Lonely voice of a man (1978)
film by Alexander Sokurov based on the works of Andrei Platonov “The Potudan River”, “The Hidden Man”, “The Origin of the Master”.
Three brothers / Tre fratelli (1981)
French-Italian film directed by Francesco Rosi based on the story “The Third Son”, the action of the story is moved to Italy.
Maria's Lovers(1984)
film by Andrei Konchalovsky based on “The Potudan River”, the location has been moved to the USA.
The beginning of an unknown century (1987)
Film almanac, which includes the short film “The Motherland of Electricity” by Larisa Efimovna Shepitko, based on the story of the same name
Cow (1990)
cartoon by Alexander Petrov based on the story of the same name.
I have to live again (2001)
film by Vasily Panin based on the stories “In a Beautiful and Furious World”, “At the Dawn” foggy youth" and "Hidden Man"
Random glance (2005)
a very strange film in the art-house style from Vladimir Mirzoev. It is alleged that the script is based on the story “The Pit” by Andrei Platonov
Father (2007)
film by Ivan Solovov based on the story “Return”.